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’Thank you, thank you,’ she said as she took each note, her old eyes watering with pleasure

Abel bent over to kiss his foster - mother, but she backed away - Flor - entyna took her father’s are and back down the forest track in the direction of their car

The old woman watched froht Then she took the new bank notes, crumpled each one into a little ball and placed therate They kindled is on top of the blazing zlotys and sat slowly down by her fire, the best in weeks, rubbing her hands together at the comfort of the warmth

Abel did not speak on the walk back to the car until the iron gates were once again in sight Then he proe, ’You are about to see the most beautiful castle in the world,’

’You , Daddy’

’In the world,’ Abel repeated quietly

Florentyna laughed ’I’ll let you kno it compares with Versailles’

They cliates, re the vehicles he had been in when he last passed through the drive to the castle Me back to him Happy days as a child with the Baron and Leon, unhappy days of his life when he was taken away fro he would never see the building again But now he, Wladek Koskiewicz, was returning, returning in triu road and both remained silent in anticipation as they rounded the final bend to the first sight of Baron Rosnovski’s hoazed at his castle

Neither of them spoke, but simply stared in disbelief at the devastation of the bombedout remains of his dream

He and Florentyna climbed slowly out of the car Still neither spoke

Florentyna held her father’s hand very, very tightly as the tears rolled down his cheeks Only one wall relory; the rest was nothing lected pile of rubble and red stone He could not bear to tell her of the great halls, the wings, the kitchens, the bedrooms Abel walked over to the three raves of the Baron and his son Leon and the other of beloved Florentyna He paused at each one and could not help but think that Leon and Florentyna could still be alive today He knelt at their heads, the dreadful visions of their final hter stood by his side, her hand resting on his shoulder, saying nothing A long time passed before Abel rose slowly and then they traether Stone slabs nificent roo

Holding hands, they reached the dungeons There Abel sat down on the floor of the darille that was still left He twisted the silver band round and round

’This is where your father spent four years of his life’

’It can’t be possible,’ said Florentyna, who did not sit down

’It’s better now than it was then,’ said Abel ’At least now there is fresh air, birds, the sun and a feeling of freedo, only darkness, death, the stench of death, and worst of all, the hope of death’

’Co here can only make you feel worse!

Florentyna led her reluctant father to the car and drove hi avenue Abel didn’t look back towards the ruined castle as they passed for the last tiates

On the journey back to Warsaw he hardly spoke and Florentyna abandoned her attempts at vivacity When her father said ’There is now only one thing left that I must achieve - in this life,’ Florentyna wondered what he could e to coax hi another weekend in London on the return journey, which she convinced herself would cheer her father up a little and perhaps even help hiet the memory of his demented old foster - mother and the remains of his castle in Poland

They flew to London the next day Abel was glad to be back in a country where he could communicate quickly with Aes, Florentyna, went off to reunite with old friends andall the papers he could lay his hands on, in the hope of bringing himself up to date hat had happened in America while he had been abroad He didn’t like to feel things could happen while he ay; it re very ithout him